Price of Power
by Helltanz98
Summary: A critical change in the third Shinobi War forces Orochimaru to take a step back from the edge. A chance explosion during the war on a mission he 'shouldn't' have been on dramatically alters his long term priorities. His goals even further alter in the wake of the Kyubi attack, and with Orochimaru still a ninja of the leaf the world might walk a new road. Rewritten Version
1. Chapter 1

Price of Power

Chapter 1

Price of Power

-scene break-

Disclaimer: I lay no claim to Naruto as a series, as a character, or in any other fashion. This is an entirely non profit work of creative expression done entirely for the sake of aforementioned expression. This work of fiction is fanfiction, and is being hosted on .

-Story Begin-

The land of Fire was legendary for many things, its prosperity drew it the envy of many rivals. In this era the safety of a land rested foremost on the shinobi that could be employed. Hi no Kuni was blessed in this aspect as well for its prosperity in commerce was protected by one of the five great shinobi villages. This village was known as Konoha, the village of the hidden leaf.

Konoha was famous. It was one of five great ninja villages. Its shinobi were legendary for their skill in battle. The shinobi of Konoha were legendary for their heritage. The shinobi of the hidden village in the leaf were legendary for its fortune in its many geniuses. It was one such genius who was nearly on the verge of breakdown

From an objective standpoint the Sannin, one of the as the name would imply three ninjas who had studied as Sarutobi Hiruzen's students, knew he should be sleeping. Orochimaru simply did not care. He neither wanted nor cared about sleep at the moment. His teacher was the great Third Hokage. The title Hokage was one that meant Fire Shadow, the one who had that title ruled Konoha. It was a position that the snake sage coveted now more than ever.

Of course there were other things Orochimaru desired. He was so tired though, the recent conflicts were of course. The sannin stumbled fumbling and hitting the side of his desk knocking his carefully organized notebooks and charts aside.

The world was in chaos. In a way he knew objectively that all of this could be laid at the feet of the formation of organized, powerful ninja villages. Originally ninjas had been organized into clans, and less commonly guilds. Some of these had been nomadic, wandering through the lands, others had lived in mountains, or valleys fairly stable, still others had had the blessing of living in cities. The foundations of the first truly powerful ninja villages had abruptly changed the status quo that had existed.

Since the foundation of the shinobi villages individual national power waned. It was that waning power that was responsible for this the third great shinobi war that was on going... this chaos that turned the whole world into a battlefield.

Oh Orochimaru didn't mind the killing, or the destruction. There were very few people Orochimaru didn't want to see die. Amongst that number were first and foremost his teacher, and his team mates the other sannin, and his own students, and then a handful of other people. It wasn't much of a list, but it was his list.

This, the third great Shinobi war was merely the culmination of the increasing power of individual shinobi villages, and the weakening of centralized national powers. The daimyos, the great lords who ruled the lands, no longer had the raw power or influence to control the many lesser provinces. It lead to this war.

Orochimaru cursed pushing his tired body up, and settled into the chair behind his desk cursing, and rambling on about all his failures, imagined and real. His body occasionally giving a spasm form lack of sleep.

Slowly the exhausted reached to pick up some of the scattered paperwork, he hadn't genin team since the usual meeting earlier in the week, but the examinations well... Orochimaru was very pleased with his team. Originally he hadn't even wanted to bother taking a team, but Sarutobi had gone an insisted. Then there was the fact that there was a war on. Personally he thought he would have been more useful in the service of the ANBU, since the Sannin were needed individually, but orders were orders. Still he had a genin team, and his idiot teammate had a genin... in fact Tsunande was the only one who had taken on a team... but she was busy at the hospital.

Slowly he looked at the picture, the team picture that had been something of tradition when a genin team was formed. His students were oddballs, even Jiraya had said so, but they were his. He muttered aggravated, his stress levels being atrociously high and his body dangerously being deprived of sleep for so many days on end. There was a mission scroll from a division within the ANBU.

He wouldn't be able to bring his team along, but it was for the good of the village, and that was always what Sarutobi-sensei was harping on about. Sarutobi who needed a successor, and in Orochimaru's mind who better than himself after all. He just needed to further demonstrate that he was the best candidate for the job.

A dangerous mission far behind enemy lines, and into their hidden village in the very hear of the land of stone to eliminate a dangerous threat to Konoha. A threat the ANBU couldn't handle but he a Sannin would have no problem with. That would show Sarutobi he was willing to make personal sacrifices for the good of the village, and he'd still make it back in time to train his genin team once they were all cleared to return to duty.

He'd show Sarutobi. He was after all Orochimaru, favorite of Konoha, most knowledgeable of the three Legendary Sages of Konoha, the Snake sannin, and all countless other titles. A simple mission like this would be no problem for his skills he told himself, and it would help cement his ascension as the next hokage... whenever Sarutobi felt like giving up the job, Orochimaru was in no rush there was a war to win after all. "Oh and damn it all I have to clean up this mess." Orochimaru slowly went about picking up the files.

Orochimaru ended up taking the mission to Iwagakure in the height of the third great shinobi war. It proved a nearly fatal mistake for all parties involved in it. Shimura Danzo, a student of the second Hokage, and the leader of the ruthless ANBU division known as the Root had orchestrated the mission in secret. The mission that nearly got Orochimaru killed.

Orochimaru made it back to Konoha, badly injured, but still capable of fighting. Once in the capable care of his teammate Tsunande he was back in full fighting form within a week. The battle though had greatly shaken the snake sage's confidence. He still wanted to be the best, and succeed Sarutobi, but he did step back and start training his genin team a little more seriously, even going so far as to try and better acquaint them with his teammate's own students.

In the end the third great shinobi war ended, and Sarutobi did name a successor to his position as Hokage. If not for the fact that Orochimaru had been shaken by the mission to Iwagakure, and the after effects he might have begrudged Minato's ascension to the position of Yondaime Hokage. Instead Orochimaru had other things that he had to deal with.

In the wake of the war, and then the Kyubi attack soon afterwords Konoha was badly depleted of manpower. It was a stark reminder of mortality.

-scene break-

The Yondaime Hokage had not ruled long. So Orochimaru had not had time to sulk for long. The chaos and destruction the bijuu attack had brought forced him to focus on other things as well. Minato had had a genin team as well, and a son too. Successors both in technique and heritage.

Orochimaru decided then and there as he overlooked the village that was so precious to his teacher that he needed a a proper successor to fulfill his dreams. To master the ninja arts, to become Hokage, to become immortal, and become as a god. Konoha definitely could also make do with a second Snake Sage.

The problem was to find some one who could surpass him if I did fail. Konoha was legendary for prodigiously talented shinobi, but for one to Orochimaru's heir... oh dear that would be hard. Orochimaru had a very low opinion of the conceited clans, and their children. They could be powerful ninja, yes, but they lacked the vision.

The answer Orochimaru realized was simplicity itself. He already had the ideal candidate after all Minato had already prepared him for the roll. After all the fourth hokage was dead, and Orochimaru wasn't, and the kid was Sarutobi's favorite. That was like perfect karma to be Orochimaru's student... not that Orochimaru cared about silly notions like karma, but it would let him one up that Shimura bastard.

Even though it had been a few years he hadn't forgotten about that botched mission to the land of stone. One day Shimura Danzo would pay for the Sage's near demise, but that day would a long time coming. Today though Orochimaru had other work to do, it would be years before 'Naruto' could begin ninja training the boy couldn't even walk yet, which gave him time to prepare.

Even with his research expenditures, which was hideously expensive even when they were partially subsidized by Konoha, which wasn't always the case, Orochimaru would never be hurting for money. He was after all the only Sannin in the Village after the attack by the nine tailed fox, and one more legendary ninja meant more money coming into the village. He would however have to go to the bank.

Orochimaru looked out over the village hidden in the leaves, he had a few years to prepare for training. It was too much to hope for that that two year old could read already, which was unfortunate... really it wasn't fair at all that he couldn't start training the kid for another few years.

Two years after the Kyubi attack Orochimaru began laying the groundwork for his next great plan. His genin team had already been promoted, in battle as he had preferred it. His students were now Chunin, and special jonin. His student Mitarashi Anko, to whom he had allowed to sign the snake summoning contract, had even joined the ANBU. This had been much to Orochimaru's liking.

For everyone else Orochimaru's plans were generally bad news. The downside to the sannin were that all of them tended to be prima donna ninjas. The only one who really had the ability to reign them in were each other, and Sarutobi. It was true that all of Konoha respected them, but the the legendary ninjas had another reputation as well specifically for getting what they wanted.

-scene break-

Naruto Uzumaki had been four when he'd started learning how to write, and he had been four when he'd gotten his own apartment. It had also been the age when Orochimaru had started taking a much more vested interest. Vested interest in this case meant sending one of his former genin to start teaching Naruto how to read and write, and math.

Before Naruto was four Orochimaru hadn't really done much, because he could do much about training. It wasn't noticed at this point though, in fact the Hokage only noticed when Orochimaru himself started teaching Naruto how to use chakra to walk up walls, and Naruto had been so happy he'd shown Sarutobi.

Sarutobi had not been pleased at the 'sudden' interest... and neither had Jiraya when he found out a year later. Orochimaru's initial efforts were getting the kid exposed to science and math, and basically coopting his former students to play ninja and tutor the kid while Orochimaru did his own thing. After all he was a legendary ninja teaching a child to read was not his job. It was also the reason

So at age seven Naruto was dressed pretty much normally in civilian clothes, or as civilian as ninja off duty clothes. Today had been a pretty average day all things considered. The academy had been boring, but that was about as surprising as summer being hot in the land of fire. Orochimaru was off somewhere, some mission most likely, which left Naruto stuck with a boring scroll with things to work over. It was mainly chakra control stuff.

Even if it was boring, it was still better than the crap at the academy. Academy lessons to quote Anko 'were eight hours straight of filtered bullshit with a lunch break'. Naruto slung off his orange sports jacket.

His apartment was made to seem all the tinier by the shelves, and boxes that filled up the walls, and under the counter. He had been living here for three years, and he was relatively comfortable here. It certainly beat the orphanage. The problem with it was that people who could sneak in tended to do so whenever they felt like it.

In this case the people who could sneak in were ninjas like Anko, or the Hokage or Orochimaru... or as the case at present was Hatake Kakashi. "Yo." The one eyed ninja greeted from his position as he leaned back reading his book. Kakashi had also not taken Naruto being trained by Orochimaru well. In fact they were pretty much the same reasons that Jiraya objected to the training. Kakashi wanted to be Naruto's jonin instructor, which would be difficult if the Orochimaru took a genin team. Of course that wasn't why he was here.

He had been carefully monitoring Naruto's academy progress... and he was going to bunch Orochimaru in the face for teaching Naruto the earth clone, or he would if he thought he could actually hit the sannin.

Now the problem was Kakashi thought a hands off approach was probably the best way to start a ninja off... Orochimaru pretty much went the opposite direction. It made it a little hard to compete, even if the opposite direction was more focused on book learning than flashy ninjutsu, especially when the competition was an even more legendary ninja, and there was still ninjutsu to be learned. It also didn't help of course Orochimaru had three head start teaching Naruto.

"Kakashi stop raiding my fridge," Naruto complained.

Now Kakashi might have felt bad, Naruto being an orphan and all meant he lived off of welfare and food support coupons, except Naruto wasn't dependent on those. On top of the orphan's stipend, Naruto was generally getting paid for a d rank mission every weekend. The Hokage tended to look the other way since it was one of the legal gray areas, and the mission was basically yard work in the company of another genin team... also Kakashi did replace the food he ate, since it tended to be his food in the first place.

Naruto's window opened again, and Anko popped in, "Oi you back to headquarters," She growled. That stupid one eye knew there was briefing in ten minutes, but no here he was messing with Naruto's training.

The blonde sighed... no respect for privacy. Just because they lived in a ninja village didn't excuse them barging into his apartment all the time. At one point he had put explosive tags on his latch, naturally in hindsight that was a tremendously stupid idea. The old man had been worried about him accidentally blowing something up, either himself, or some hapless idiot. Naturally Orochimaru had taken the opposite stance, and that had just gone and gotten them both further in trouble.

Kakashi grumbled and left with Anko, leaving the blonde to his homework, and individual practice assignments. Naruto groanedHe wouldn't have minded the academy if the classes weren't so boring. Orochimaru's successor that was him... but there was a price to power. Part of that price was studying, lots and lots of studying.

There was a knock on the door, and still grumbling the blonde let Kabuto in. Kabuto was a Konoha genin, even though from a skill set he was more suited to being a chunin. He also served as Naruto's principle tutor since he was after all just a 'genin'... he even got a regular d rank pay check for the tutoring, which was worth it... Kabuto couldn't stand having to do menial labor. Kabuto was an ideal pick for tutoring also, given his had Orochimaru's absolute trust, given both of them wanted Shimura Danzo's head on a platter. "So I guess Anko just left, eh Naruto-kun. Anyway its biology time," Kabuto dropped a human anatomy text on the table. At sixteen Kabuto was already a medical genius, easily better at anything in the field than his stepfather; who was the head doctor at Konoha's primary care facility. His talent was unrivaled in his generation, and only Tsunande had more raw natural talent.

Naruto had to learn all of this for a very important reason. Orochimaru's research involved a great deal of biology. His, Orochimaru's, studies of kekai genkai revolved had been revolutionary to the study of genetics. If Naruto was going to understand how revolutionary Orochimaru's work was he needed a firm background in the sciences as well as the more common ninja arts.

-scene break-

Naruto would be turning eight in the fall, and Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure, was nearly at his wits end. If he had had the time he would have just taken to training Naruto himself just so he could put an end to this petty squabbling between his two students. Alas he didn't have time to train Naruto, running the village occupied most of his time.

As if Jiraya, who shouldn't even have been complaining because he wasn't even in the village in the first place, and Orochimaru complaining wasn't enough of an issue he had Danzo and Kakashi complaining to. Sarutobi had put his foot down when Orochimaru had asked if Naruto could take the graduation test early. As if to sandbag him Danzo had jumped in wanting again to add Naruto to the Shinobi corp as well, and Kakashi had immediately jumped in wanting to be Naruto's genin instructor. Kakashi had never even had a genin team. On top of this there were any number of other problems going around both internally within the village, which ranged from the mundane to potentially deadly issues, and external issues with the various other nations, and villages... the hidden village of Kumo in particular came to mind most especially. Still the issue for the moment was Naruto. "Now Naruto, I'm aware that bandit hunting is something considered especially normal amongst shinobi, but for your own safety, especially Orochimaru isn't allowed to conduct any more of these practical lessons outside of the village from now on."  
The blonde nodded, there was an already healing cut across his temple. Kabuto had apparently had to shave Naruto's head in the field, apparently it had been seriously matted with enemy blood... which the Sandaime wasn't pleased about at all, "I understand, old man," he responded, damn his head hurt. He had been way to close to the explosive tag when he'd triggered it.

Sarutobi sighed, he wasn't sure how much longer he could realistically deny Naruto the graduation test. It was true that unlike even four years ago that Konoha needed all the skilled able bodied shinobi it could get. Even with the trouble in Hidden Mist, and the problems that Konoha was having Kumo there was no reason to rush educating new gening. Except in this case they weren't rushing, Naruto had the benefit of a half dozen off and on teachers outside of the academy itself. Kakashi just happened to be the odd man out of Orochimaru's little clique of students, and associates.

It was also Kakashi's reports that Sarutobi was reviewing. Well his evaluations, and one of the chunin instructors at the academy. That wasn't what was worrying him, "Now Naruto the doctor said you were experiencing some light sensitivity so I'm going to agree with him, and you're to take the next week off."  
"But old man the exam is next week, I'm ready," Naruto declared emphatically, "I can totally breeze through that I've got the basics jutsu down," which wasn't entirely true since he couldn't pull the illusionary clone technique, but his tsuchi bunshin was plenty good, and well so was his kage bunshin.

The Hokage knew all about that too, he had really not been happy with Orochimaru teaching Naruto that particular kinjutsu, but it was bridge under the water now. "And you've just survived a battle with bandits, and your light sensitivity may be indicative of potential complications, so you will have to miss it."

"Kabuto-"  
"Is not a fully fledged member of the medical community of Konoha," Yet, it was a small trivial bit of paperwork and Kabuto could very well strut around as Doctor Yakushi Kabuto if he wanted, but the Hokage wasn't going to broach that matter. Orochimaru looked as if he wanted to interject, "Quiet," Sarutobi grunted at his wayward trouble causing student, "this is your fault to begin with, and I have given you plenty of leeway with teach Naruto while he's been attenting the academy but there will not be any more of these bandit killing trips, if this was war time you might have a good reason for this."

The snake sage nodded, grudingly conceding to the Hokage's orders. He personally thought it was best that genin should have plenty experience, even if Konoha thought it was best to wait until making chunin before making one's first kill. Still at least the old man was assuming the light sensitivity was from the explosion, luckily he expected the pain to fade soon.

The hokage dismissed them and then started reading Orochimaru's report on the bandit killing. It had been by his order that the bandits were to be killed.

All through out the land bandits were regarded as the worst kind of scum, even by Shinobi and Ronin who were little more than hired swords. A bandit did not follow any code he did what he pleased thievery, rape, murder were all acceptable actions. He had sent Orochimaru just because the sannin had been more than willing. He hadn't even considered that Orochimaru would bring people along with him, much less Naruto.

Still it was done now. Orochimaru's impromptu team had come upon the bandits like a scourge sent by god, and obliterated them. They had all been dead before their physical lives had ended, their lives had been ended by the stroke of a brush by the order of the God of Shinobi, the Third Fire Shadow of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The presence of ronin in the camp though was... troublesome

Kabuto's medical reports were thorough though. The boy was a service to the village, and his medical skills would save hundreds of Konoha's finest over the next few years. At least the injuries seemed superficial it was probably nothing. The sandaime finished reading, yes he would just have to keep Orochimaru in line.

Naruto had come straight home to his apartment after leaving the Hokage's office, and Orochimaru had parted with him at the lobby of the tower. The snake sage had said something about the Kumo delegation coming, and how he was going to check out things with the ANBU, which meant he was probably going to see Anko for information.

The blonde yawned soaking in the hot water of his shower, geez he loved water heaters they were great. Best thing after a mission ever... and what a mission he'd gotten to fight ronin and bandits, and kill the enemies of the hokage, and Konoha it'd been awesome... well except the whole nearly blowing himself up part. That had been marginally less awesome than the rest of it. Of course the downside was there was supposed to be a delegation from the Hidden Cloud Village coming to Leaf. Orochimaru had suggested that the blond keep his eyes open for any suspicious activity.

Kabuto had managed to scrub most the blood off in a nearby stream, but Naruto wanted to make sure. So when he was satisfied the blood had been removed turned off the water and stepped out.

He reached out silently and grabbed a towel and dried off. He'd definitely need to wash clothes, it was the one chore he always ended up falling behind on doing. He looked around through his mess of clothes, most of them dirty. So he grabbed one of his loose fitting yukata, and the dark blue trousers.

It was nicer than anything he wore regularly, but it was also one of the few things he had clean. The only problem with it was it wasn't really suited for ninja stuff. There was also no sense ruining his good clothes on everyday things normally. So Naruto was stuck grabbing single belt with pouches on it, his though pouches just weren't going to be practical.

He grabbed one of his protein drinks, and chugged the disgusting mix down, swallowing and opened his window getting ready to leave. Konoha was peaceful, but this was its natural environment at least to the blond. Naruto had not experienced a war that affected the entire village so this environment was normal to him.

Kakashi's self proclaimed rival Maito Guy took the time to ask if the blond had seen the infamous one eye. Naruto hadn't of course, seeing as he had only just gotten back, so Gai went on his way. No doubt Gai was hoping to challenge Kakashi to one of the two's inane series of contests.

Naruto didn't really know what to do though... though the Hokage hadn't expressly forbid it the blonde understood he was supposed to be taking it easy. The problem with that was he didn't really feel like doing laundry, even if he knew he needed to, and studying wasn't fun when you had a splitting headache. "So they have arrived." He breathed catching sight of what he figured was the Cloud delegation. He didn't really get why they were bothering to negotiate in the first place. As far as he could figure Kumo needed to get its ass kicked, even if Orochimaru had said that some times you had to negotiate... even with people you didn't like. Still Naruto was wondering if their wasn't some over elaborate ruse in place to aid Kumo's agenda.

-scene break-

It was two days later when things abruptly got out of hand. It had been good fortune that Orochimaru had been suspicious about things as well, and had urged the ANBU to be on alert. It had been further good fortune that Konoha Military Police had taken notice of the increased alert and likewise increased patrols.

The problem was already out of hand in the first place. You didn't use ninjutsu inside a village, there simply was way too much chance for collateral damage. Jonin especially should have known better... or maybe they had and just hadn't cared.

Kakashi cursed his luck, and kicked the cloud jonin in the ribs... on the plus side the kid was safe, on the other he was pretty sure that his partner had a ruptured spleen.

The Konoha detective slammed the enemy jonin against the wall. As an Uchiha he might not have liked the Hyuga all that much, clan rivalry and stuff, and they were ninjas too, but these fuckers, these fucking cloud bastards had tried to kidnap a kid. Man he'd been dismissive of Itachi's warning a couple days ago, now he was glad though.

Hiashi Hyuga considered his options, there was no way to avoid an incident. What had been an attempted kidnapping had exploded into a lethal battle with the entirety of the cloud delegation, and members of both Konoha's ANBU, and the Military Police getting involved. The Hyuga clan head flexed his numbed hand, that lightning jutsu had been just a little too close for comfort. "How is he?"

"We need to get him to the hospital," Kakashi grunted checking over Itachi's prone form as the younger ninja clutched his side, it'd just been bad luck that the cloud ninja had been willing to use such destructive techniques when they'd shown up.

They all went quiet as the Hokage arrived... with plenty of ANBU. Sarutobi Hiruzen had already ordered the village sealed off, and ANBU and Military police agents sent to all the clans immediately. This was a disaster... an unmitigated disaster. His surrogate son might have urged for a stronger more aggressive foreign policy, but Orochimaru didn't particularly want another war. Danzo though, Danzo was an old war hawk... and there was no denying this was an act of war on Kumo's part.

The Hyuga already wanted blood, and that would play right into Danzo's plans. "Where is Orochimaru?" The Hokage asked.  
"Apologies Hokage-sama I have not seen him tonight." The ANBU responded, which really wasn't that surprising all things considerd.

Sarutobi nodded, most likely Orochimaru like any other Shinobi was probably trying to sleep. Still this was a crises and he needed all of his best ninja up and awake ready for anything. "Prepare to move the wounded, and fetch me Ibiki, Fugaku and Orochimaru immediately." The old man ordered. He would also need to see about getting a hold of his other students. Jiraya he could probably depend on, but Tsunande might be an issue. Still he needed all of his ninja.

The residence of the Hyuga clan was pristine in a very traditionalist noble home style all the building represented the traditional nobles complex, if it was possible they probably would build another Pagoda soon, the style was in stark contrast to the Uchiha clan town like complex.

Or rather it had been pristine mere hours ago. Now there was smoke rising up to the heavens, and the main gate, and wall of the complex was completely shattered. Naruto he wouldn't realize anything was up for another several hours when he woke up in the morning.

-Chapter conclusion-


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Price of Power

-Chapter begin-

Uchiha Fugaku had been at the station by two o'clock. His lieutenant had rushed him to the scene of the mess as soon as it had been secure, an hour later he'd arrived at Konoha primary emergency care facility where his eldest son was still in surgery. He was still trying to piece through what had happened, but it was clear that Kakashi, and Itachi had been responding to the attack on the Hyuga complex. There had been some kind of jutsu incident and Itachi had gotten the bulk of an explosion had gotten sent through a wall, but anything more than that was still in question.

The Hyuga were already swarming all over their complex absolutely on the alert for any further attacks, and the Hokage was doing his best to check on all the other clans. Fugaku though was stuck impotently waiting for a word from the head doctor.

Kabuto's stepfather stepped through the swinging doors, and supressed a groan, and a yawn at the same time. "Your son will be fine mister Uchiha, Itachi's condition is very stable and he should be awake by the morning. We've already finished the surgery and while he's lost a fair amount of blood he's been patched up."

Kakashi sat back and just listened, okay that was good news. The one eyed ninja headed out of the room. Now that he knew that his partner was alright the hokage wanted him back to work. As it was they thought they had the entire delegation from Cloud wrapped up, but the Hokage had already ordered a full sweep of the village just in case. All of this was pretty bad news. This was pretty much an unmitigated disaster, Konoha might not have been critically understrength like it had been in the wake of the third shinobi war, and the Kyubi attack, but a war with a major shinobi village was still a big deal. Itachi had just had a bit of bad luck getting caught in the blast. Misfortune could down even the most dangerous of shinobi, and that was what this had been.

Kakashi was rushing across Konoha at his best possible speed. People could die through sheer bad luck, of course for a ninja battle things had ended surprisingly clean. One of the cloud jonin was dead, another was probably going to loose his arm, and had some serious broken bones, but he'd still pull through. Konoha had some serious injuries but nothing that looked to be fatal. That was good news.

A cluster of ANBU greeted Kakashi in front of the non descript building, "How is the kid doing?"

"Probably be awake tomorrow," Kakashi responded looking around, it took a minute to ask, it was never a good sign when this many ANBU were around. "Whats the situation out here?"

It was easy to tell the other operative was grinding his teeth in annoyance, "The Hyuga are raising ruckus," and that was understandable, but, "but its going to be worse than that the clan heads were all dragged out of bed as apart of the heightened alert, there is probably going to be some kind of emergency session. Then on top of all this Orochimaru and Danzo both have their own ideas on how to deal with all of this."

Kakashi notably flinched, ooh that really was a bad sign. He glanced towards the first lights of dawn. "Has Ibiki gotten anything out of the bastard yet?"

-scene break-

Naruto had woken up wondering just what the hell was going on. He'd gone to sleep some time after midnight, and woken up to having three freaking ANBU in his house.

He had originally hoped to go training, but the old man had told him to take it easy as it was and the ANBU were already kind of antsy. It had taken ten minutes to get the short version out of them. The short version which was rather lacking in some critical details.

So Naruto spent the time he was eating breakfast wondering why cloud ninja were so stupid they decided to attack not one but two heirs to two major bloodline clans of the village hidden in the leaf. "So the cloud ninjas attempted to kidnap an Uchiha and a Hyuga?" He just wanted to make sure he had all this right... Orochimaru probably already knew but Kabuto might not.

"Yes, Uchiha Itachi is in intensive care," Ichimaru remarked helping himeslf to the offered cup of instant ramen, as his two teammates finished checking their routine patrol of the building. "Hyuga Hinata is mostly fine they say."

Naruto nodded, hmm he was pretty sure that the Hyuga was in his year at the academy, but he definitely knew that there wasn't an Uchiha Itachi in his year. He knew there were a couple of other Uchihas at the school, maybe he was in the upper years. Still he understood that if Cloud had attained the Byakugan, or Sharingan it would have been a disaster. Bloodlines were coveted by all the great villages after all, and well by shinobi in general to.

Kabuto had the best timing in the world today it seemed like. He also looked like he had been run ragged, as he breathed his greeting, he however wasn't bringing good news at all. Orochimaru was apparently going to be gone for the next week apparently. Sarutobi was sending Orochimaru to go bring Jiraya back to Konoha immediately.

One of the ANBU looked at Kabuto, "Did, was anything said about negotiations with the hidden cloud?" He asked.

"I haven't heard anything about that, sorry," Kabuto replied. "All I've heard is that they're sending Orochimaru out to go and quickly return with the legendary toad sage."

Naruto at times wondered why Konoha had such weird ninja... snakes were cool, dogs and monkeys could be to, but toads really, and slugs to for that matter that was a werid choice for a summon. Still he knew who Jiraya was... "This is really bad isn't it?" He asked, voicing everyone in the room's concerns.

Konoha was widely regarded as the strongest of the five great villages. Even after the third great shinobi war, and attack by the nine tails Konoha's strength had been legendary. A part of that had been because of people like Orochimaru, and Kakashi, and the Old Man living in Konoha. Legendary ninjas like them were the kind of people troublemakers preferred to avoid, and legendary ninjas also attracted more business to the village, more missions.

If the Old Man had sent a message to Jiraya though, then Orochimaru should be able to link up with him and get back here fairly quickly. So that would definitely be a good thing, one of the sannin was a potent enough threat two in the same place... if Cloud tried anything well then there would be a lot of people dead at the end of it.

Ichimaru nodded, Jiraya was a powerful shinobi, "What about Tsunade? With all three members of the Sannin."

"I don't know, its possible, but all I was told was Orochimaru was going to get Jiraya, and would be gone from the village." It was entirely possible that she had been recalled as well to the village, but the question was whether she'd come at all. The last war had taken a lot out of Tsunade, she'd lost some of the people closest to her during the war. By the end of the conflict the already dwindling immediate family within the Senju clan were dead. Jiraya coming back was a certainty, Tsunande wasn't, but having all three of the sannin would have been a great advantage for Konoha.

Kabuto opened the fridge up, and grabbed the carton of milk, checking to make sure it wasn't expired before pouring himself a glass.

Naruto drained the rest of the broth from his bowl of ramen. The village sure looked busy today, with all the ninjas running around. Cloud had really stepped in it this time it sure looked like it. Hmm was that smoke? "Uh guys?"

-scene break-

Itachi narrowly managed to get out of the way of the descending kunai. The young Uchiha slammed into the hard linnoleum tiles of his hospital room. It didn't help his side was hurting like hell, and he was in a hospital gown. Still he was in a real bind. He sent a pulse of chakra to his eyes igniting the rotating within his powerful expression of his clan's legendary kekkai genkai.

Shisui Uchiha definitely had a heavy advantage though in this fight. Not only was he uninjured, he also was fully equipped, and prepared for the fight. Itachi knew that as it stood he need to do something, hopefully getting reinforcements, or something that would take Shisui out of the fight.

The problem with that was all he really had was his sharingan to work with, he didn't have any ninja supplies at all. Itachi rolled out of the way of another melee attack knocking his IV tree down in the process. The younger Uchiha cursed wrenching the IV out of his hand before being forced to leap backwards to avoid a wide swing. A flash of hand signs and he exhaled the blast of fire.

Shisui cursed, and then cursed again as the building's automatic sprinkler kicked in, and then cursed yet again as he saw Itachi flashing through more handsigns. Shisui had already realized what was happening. He himself was a fire type affinity, but Itachi was fire and water together and now Itachi had free source of water to work with. As it was there was no doubt that this was already going to draw a commotion, damn it if he'd hoped he could cut him just... just enough that Itachi would be assumed to be dead. Shisui flipped through his own hand signs, his fire jutsu met Itachi's water one creating a haze of steam. The last clear picture he got was suddenly more handsigns.

Itachi finished his hand signs filling the room with thick obscuring mist. He had copied the technique from an enemy ninja from the village who the technique shared a name with. The technique would buy him only so much time though, he knew what Shisui was intending. The final form of the Sharingan... the mangekyo required the sacrifice of a close friend dying.

There was another explosion of fire, blowing out the windows of the building. At this height the wind would blow the mist away in a matter of minutes, which was about the same amount of time that it would take the slowest responders to get up here.

He considered his options, and made a cross hand sign, and a dozen shadow clones exploded into existence all around him. A melee rush would be... should be just enough to get a hold of Shishui.

There was an explosion from a shadow clone as Shishui destroyed it, ninja wires were strung along the room Itachi realized... the first responders would have to get past them slowing them down, and those were explosive tags. Just a hair to slow Itachi realized a moment to late as Shisui tackled him. "ah so sorry," Shisui muttered, and then they both vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Itachi felt his breath leave him as they both slammed into the rooff of the building, there was blood on his hand. His hand was around Shisui's kunai, "Itachi I'm sorry, but you need this," Shisui's grip on his hand was too strong, and force the kunai deeper into his own side. "My eyes, take them, there is a mad man coming to kill us all." Shisui spasmed in Itachi's arms gasping in pain as he worked the blade deeper. It was beyond fatal by this point, but there was no telling how long they had, how long he had. If an yamanaka was amongst the first responders all of this would be endangered.

"What are-"  
"Hush you must be ready Itachi, a mad man is coming," Shisui repeated grasping futilely with his other hand still he managed to tag Itachi with the seal. That would tell him what he needed to know, he had only barely escaped Danzo too. His eyes were dimming though. "My eyes, your eyes, you will need both and help perhaps. I-" Uchiha Shisui slumped dead into Itachi's shoulder, and Itachi's eyes already bloody red, bled. The Mangekyo, it took so much chakra, way more than the normal sharingan, but everything it was so clear, he could see chakra is such detail it was...

Itachi flinched closing his eyes experimentily focusing his eyes. The Sharingan, the regular form returned, and then his Mangekyo, and then back again. A few minutes later help arrived, dozens of ANBU stormed the building. By the time the Konoha military police arrived Itachi was blankly staring at Shisui's corpse, his hand being bandaged by one of the ANBU medics.

The other Uchiha weren't reacted well upon by the ANBU, Kakashi's sharingan blazed angrily in it's transplanted socket. He didn't know what the fuck was going on, or what kind of fucked up shit was going down, but an Uchiha had just tried to kill one of his teammates they were taking this straight to the Hokage.

Uchiha Fugaku had other concerns, another Uchiha had just tried to murder his, Fugaku's, son. An Uchiha who had been fully armed and ready for battle... what kind of nonsense was this. It was premeditated murder. The head of the Uchiha clan shook, tremoring in disbelief and astonishment. What could have brought this on to attack his.. the injured Itachi. He could understand the ANBU reaction.

The smoke, thick and black was already rising up to the sky as they stood there. It was trying crowds all around the hospital. The hospital's fire alarm was blaring. The smoke could be seen already across the city in the clear contrast of the day. Both ANBU and Konoha Military Police emergency responders were already rushing to the scene even as the hospital was being evacuated.

The Hokage was here, Fugaku realized still dumbstruck by the realization of an Uchiha having attacked Itachi. Gone were the flowing robes of his office. Instead the Hokage looked prepared for war, the old man's eyes were harder than Fugaku had seen in a long time.

"What happened?"

-scene break-

Orochimaru wondered how much progress Ibiki made in interogating the surviving cloud ninja since he had left Konoha more than a week prior. As it was he'd be lucky if was back with the oaf in time to see the start of official hostilities if things did go south. There was of course still the possibility of Sarutobi being able to succeed in talking this down, but Orochimaru didn't see it happening. Cloud seemed pretty desperate, and their attempt had gone too far sideways. He still had to find Jiraya though.

Allegedly the toad sage was supposed to around this area, hopefully he still was that way they could hurry back to Konoha with all possible haste. The third had sent emergency messages to Jiraya immediately anyway. Of course at this point it could probably be safely assumed that Cloud already knew that. Orochimaru welcomed the ninja of the hidden village in the clouds to try and attack him though.

He was glad Sarutobi-Sensei didn't expect him to go drag Tsunande back with him in addition to Jiraya. Already Sarutobi's messages were indicative something deeply wrong was going on in Konoha. Orochimaru had no idea what would provoke an Uchiha attempt on their heir's life, and the letter had further speculated further trouble was feared so Orochimaru knew he needed to get back quickly. The problem with that was of course he needed to find his oaf of a teammate. He needed to find Jiraya now so they could be back as soon as possible because there was no telling what kind of plans Kumo was laying while he was stuck looking for Jiraya.

Meanwhile Jiraya was busy looking for Orochimaru. Sarutobi had sent his creepy bastard of a teammate, and they were supposed to meet up here, and Jiraya didn't see hide or hair of the other member of the sannin. If Cloud was going to attack they'd probably end up coming straight through the the country of rice fields if Cloud was going to attack it was going to be one hell of a mess. Still Sarutobi's message regarding his plan to get Tsunande back to Konoha intrigued him, and he figured Orochimaru would be want to hear it as well.

He didn't get why sensei had sent Orochimaru anyway to meet up with them. Of course it was entirely possible that the old man was going to send them together on a mission just like the old days, but Jiraya kind of doubted that happening. Oh and there he was, Jiraya leaped down from the building and into the middle of the street, "Hah there you are," He declared, "if the world wasn't such a mess I'd totally slug your ugly mug old buddy, so whats the news?" He really was mildly annoyed at Orochimaru teaching Naruto, now was absolutely not the time for that. After they kicked Kumo's teeth he, and Orochimaru would absolutely be having words about that, but only after Cloud got its rightly deserved beating.

"What do you mean there I am, I've been looking for you all day." Orochimaru growled in response, "as for what I've heard, none of its good."

Jiraya nodded, "Well yeah I kind of figured that, so lets go get a drink, I got word from sensei that you might not have heard yet."

"What?" Normally Orochimaru would have been totally against the idea, but he was intrigued enough to humor Jiraya.

Orochimaru pulled them to the best place in town, not because it was expensive, but because it had big private rooms that they could seal off. Jiraya was kind of disappointed by the move denying him some company of the female persuasion but he'd live.

Sarutobi-sensei's message had arrived yesterday, and it was pretty in genius even by the Old Man's standards. The attack on the Uchiha kid was completely out of left field, so everyone was on an even greater heightened alert, which was saying something. Still sensei was sending some ANBU kid to go find Tsunande, apparently the Senju werent as dead as everybody had thought. The kid's name, Jiraya had said was Tenzo, and he had the mokuton ability.

Orochimaru nodded along carefully avoiding making a mess of his drink. Sarutobi's plan was in genius he had to admit. Yes genetically Tenzo, and Tsunande were related. He should know of course he had performed the genetic rewrite of Tenzo that made them even closer related. It had been a very dangerous program. It had however been successful.

He had never even considered trying to use Tenzo as a carrot to try and lure Tsunande back to the village. It had never really crossed his mind. It risked backfiring, or not working, but Sarutobi-sensei was Hokage.

"So you think the princess will come back, it'd be great to have the team back together again," Jiraya declared throwing back his drink, "I mean it'd be nice if it were under better circumstances of course, but Cloud seems like it needs a thorough thrashing." They might have been ninjas but kidnapping kids was down right rotten thing to go and try and do. "You heard anything about negotiations by the way?"

Orochimaru shook his head, "I don't know about Tsunande," they would just have to see whether she came back or not, "And I haven't heard even if Sarutobi-sensei is pursuing negotiations with Kumo." It hadn't come up in the messages he'd gotten from Konoha and he hadn't asked, because really he didn't expect anything to come of the negotiations.

"I see, well lets finish this," He said grabbing the bottle, "And we can leave go straight back to Konoha," The toad sage declared, "I need to see my godson after all." he stated before turning his head, "So Orochi speaking of whats this I hear about him nearly blowing himself up fighting bandits? What about that?"

Orochimaru rolled his eyes, and grabbed the bottle, "It was an accident, it couldn't be helped. Naruto is fine."  
"No an accident is dropping a bottle ya bastard, explosions are definitely not just accidents," Jiraya grunted, yeah after this mess with Cloud was settled him and Orochimaru were definitely going to be having some words. This was especially going to be true if Sensei was serious about the sannin staying around in Konoha. "Anyway whats this about him not graduating yet, whats up with that?"  
-scene break -

The council meeting brought ill news to the floor. It seemed as if the village hidden in the clouds would be supported by their home nation's own soldiers. The Samurai of Kaminari no Kuni were allegedly already on the march. It was unfortunate news to hear, because while it was true that the use of Samurai in war had faded especially since the decline of centralized power, and the ascent of the shinobi village system they were still formidable enemies who used chakra.

It also had other problems. Kaminari using samurai meant that Hi no Kuni would have to retaliate, which would bring many new political problems into this already troublesome situation. This already meant that they would need to immediately contact the great lord who ruled the land of Fire.

In short Sarutobi Hiruzen did not like this information at all. It was all not the only incoming bad news to reach the council. There had been no word on what had prompted Uchiha Shisui to attack Uchiha Itachi. The botched assassination merely further aggravated an already delicate situation. Then there were the already received reports about activity by Kumo's own ANBU forces.

On the other hand there were pieces of good news to discuss as well. Key amongst them was the matter of the sannin. Jiraya and Orochimaru had met up, and were on the way back already. The matter of Tsunade was a more complicated situation, and for now they didn't have a definitive answer.

Whatever the case ended up being Danzo wasn't likely to like it. The situation with the Uchiha could not be helped. For the moment it seemed that everyone was united, but the war hawk did not expect that to last, but Sarutobi would not entertain his ideas for the moment. Danzo considered trying to go behind Sarutobi's back for the village's own good, but for the moment the monkey might have just had a point. There was also the fact he didn't want to give Orochimaru further 'reason' to try and kill him. That whole fiasco in Iwagakure hadn't even been intended to turn out that way, but try and explain that to the sannin and you didn't get anywhere.

The rest of hte council was more concerned with how the other great shinobi villages would react to this. Mist, who was still reeling, and picking up the pieces from their civil war and bloodline purge wasn't really an issue. The horror stories coming out of the land of water seemed to indicate that wasn't going to change any time soon. Sunagakure, who was obstensibly an ally of Konoha, and Iwagakure, most definitely not one, was another matter entirely. There really was no telling exactly how they would react to this situation between Kumo and Konoha. Still even just getting Jiraya back would dramatically increase Konoha's prestige, and actual power, and that kind of increase could easily be the key in detering further hostilities from other powers.

"We will have to draft a letter to the daimyo," One of the clan heads remarked, "All of this is getting way to out of hand, a war between Fire and Lightning could really spiral out of control."

The Nara did have a point. With the land of water in such political straits Lightning and Fire were two of the dominant powers in regards to sea borne trade. Both nations had long coastal stretches and many ports, and with economic power political power followed.

-Chapter conclusion-


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Price of Power

-Chapter begin-

Uchiha Itachi wasn't sure what to do. He had never particularly trusted Danzo, but this was a different level entirely. There was also the fact the warning that Danzo might attempt to steal Uchiha eyes was disturbing for obvious reasons. He was more worried though about the mad man that had so disturbed his friend so as to force him to give up his own life.

Itachi had only done limited experimentation with his newly evolved Sharingan. Part of the reason for that of course had been his hospitalization had lasted longer than he initially had expected, and there were those concerned for his well being. ANBU, and Uchiha alike had been unwilling to scarcely let him out of their sight after that attack, and thus he had barely had a moments peace.

The heightened state of alert throughout the village though was likely to deter any further attacks by foreign agents. Or at least that was the general idea, thus far the idea seemed to be holding true, which was a good sign. Still finally he had managed to get a little bit of time to himself. The unfortunate truth was that a war with Cloud, and likely, with the land of lightning as well was looking to be unavoidable.

Kumo had by all indication claimed to deny any wrong doing. In fact they had made absurd claims in order to just maintain peace. The Hyuga, and Uchiha, and all of Konoha as well would not hear of it. They would not stand for it. Itachi could understand it, he certainly did not want Konoha to appease the Cloud, but at the same time this was going to be bloody.

Itachi still wasn't one hundred percent, but his recovery had been steady. He had even been allowed to resume a , light, patrol route. Of course that was probably because of the heightened state of alert. In truth Itachi was glad to be back working, it helped take the edge off things. For the time being he couldn't do anything but wait and watch.

He slowly pieced through the information the ANBU had on Danzo. It was surprising how much internal affairs could accumulate, even for as long as the bastard had been living in the village. Danzo, and Root. There had been a black op umbrella organization under Konoha's ANBU during the war but they'd been ordered disbanded and folded back into the regular command. Itachi wondered how much the IA reports didn't have, or how much suspicious activity people were keeping to themselves.

One thing was clear given how thick the Internal Affairs report was Danzo was probably... definitely a threat to Konoha. The question was who he could go to, and then the answer hit him like a brick. Kakashi, they were in ANBU together, and the older ninja was the former student of the fourth hokage, and if it was true that Jiraya would be back in the village soon then the legendary spymaster could definitely find out whatever angle Shimura Danzo was working behind the village's back.

Uchiha Itachi was going to find out was going on. Konoha was on the edge of war, his best friend had killed... sacrificed himself in hopes of stopping a mad man, and there was another old bastard doing something sneaking.

Itachi was definitely going to figure out all of this, because whatever was coming had cost Uchiha Shisui his life. Uchiha Shihsui's reputation would be forever tainted, so this was all that Itachi could do to honor his best friend's memory. The mere thought of what Shisui had given up threatened to burn his eyes, to awaken his Mangekyo.

Danzo would have ANBU support. Possible traitors in the service, and that was just within ANBU the old man was a village elder he definitely have lesser ninja supporting him just because of that position. Itachi knew his present injuries would impede his abilities to fight ANBU level ninja on even footing, but he was a shinobi. Fights didn't have to be on even footing, and there was his latest dirty trick up his sleeve; the mangekyo.

Of course Danzo was not the only threat. Itachi knew that in addition to the warnings about the 'mad man' he had to consider the very real possibility of a fight with Kumo. In such a case, that was to say a war with the Hidden Cloud, he'd need to be ready to fight at his best. So Itachi was already planning for any number of possible problems in the short term.

He figured the best way to handle things now would be to go ahead and approach Kakashi, perhaps not immediately bringing his concerns about Danzo up, but they definitely needed to talk about Kumo. It helped that in regards to that Kakashi had a lightning affinity and had more raiton jutsus than anyone else Itachi knew personally. If anyone would be able to help him prepare for a conflict with ninjas from the Hidden Cloud it'd probably be Kakashi. On the other hand it might be worth it to go ahead and show Kakashi the copies of the internal affairs reports collected on Danzo.

At this point Itachi considered all his options. He could summon and that would definitely be able to find Kakashi faster than he could on foot. Summons also had the advantage of he would know if it was dispelled, or worse actually outright killed. Itachi flashed through his handseals and brushed his fingers along the kunai he pulled from its holster.

The crow cawed louder than he had hoped, "Ah," It called stretching its wings, "Hmm whats going on Itachi?" The crow called, "Need a message delivered?"

"No, not just yet," He responded, "I do need you to find Kakashi though," There was something vaugely ironic about sending a crow to find someone whose name meant scarecrow.

The bird bobbed its head, undoing the latch with its peak, and then bent its wing pushing the window open, "Alright be back soon," It called to him doing its little two step walk and hopped off the edge.

-scene break-

Orochimaru, and Jiraya were both for their own reasons glad to be back in Konoha. Of course having to make their explanations, and reports to the old man though wasn't one of those reasons. The council were just as annoying as ever on top of that. The two members of the sannin could both agree with that statement. "So anyway besides the geezers hows life in the village been?" Jiraya asked he wasn't going to bring up Naruto just yet, the old man didn't want them fighting, and he could understan why especially if war did break out with the hidden cloud.

"Its normally very quiet without you here Jiraya," Orochimaru grunted glowering at him for all but shouting in his ear as he sloshed around. He was glad to be back in the village to an extent, less because of the village itself, and more because of the few people he actually liked were here.

He'd spent the last three weeks with Jiraya, and that was more exhausting than he had thought was possible. From his perspective as opposed to maturing away from Konoha he'd gotten more immature... or Jiraya could have just intentionally been doing that to annoy him... that was always possible. In fact Orochimaru wouldn't have put it past Jiraya to be intentionally annoying just because he felt like it.

Jiraya sighed and leaned his head back, "Well alright I'm going to go find my godson and I reckon try and make sure you haven't completely ruined him see ya." And then he shoved Orochimaru into a convienent pile of mud. The other sannin spluttered incoherently standing up.

"Damn it all Jiraya I should have seen that coming," Orochimaru gritted his teeth in frustration, stopping to think. As it was the academy was out on break. He had planned that unless there was some movement on the Kumo front... he'd spend the rest of the break Naruto had from the academy tutoring Naruto. It was unfortunate that his pupil didn't share his earth affinity, which certainly would have made things easier, but there was no helping such things.

They'd just have to learn Earth Jutsus the old fashioned way. Now though he had to stop Jiraya from interfering in his preplanned training schedule. First though he'd need to find his pupil. Presumably, Orochimaru stopped trying to recall what day it was, was it wednesday.

He grit his teeth. Even though the Sandaime hadn't approved of his training of Naruto at such a young age, he had still insisted on having a hand in training. A part of the hokage's hand in this was letting that meddling brat Kakashi have a turn. It really was rather frustrating.

Kakashi might have been a ninjutsu specialist, but the Hokage had been rather stern on the matter of just what they should teach Naruto. Ninjutsu had been one of the things that the Sandaime had restricted rather throughly, especially after Naruto had learned the tsuchi bunshin techniques... he still didn't see what sensei's big deal was he'd been learned the technique at pretty much the same age... for that matter he was pretty sure Sarutobi had as well. He didn't have time to worry about that now, he had one of Konoha's finest to track...err other finest, Kakashi was ANBU not Military Police after all.

Jiraya in the mean time chuckled to himself, oh sure he had considered leaving Orochimaru in the dust and trying to find Naruto by himself. He had even considered just asking Sarutobi-sensei where he could find him this time of day. Jiraya though was a ninja... and Sarutobi's lecture had been rather... long... and boring. He really didn't want to have to listen to another one of those again.

Jiraya was careful of making too much noise, or risking a motion that might draw Orochimaru's attention. His teammate was probably eased up, since he was in the village and all, but he couldn't take the chance. Some ninjas didn't fully relax till they were somewhere they considered totally safe... like for the ANBU safehouses, or the precints for the Konoha Military Police. The latter was rather ironic in a way, given what all the police had to deal with in their precints Konoha was a ninja village after all.

Orochimaru scowled, and head towards his best guess to find Kakashi. The third's entirely unnecessary restrictions, in his opinion, on ninjutsu meant Kakashi tended to focus on more mundane things. Particularly weapon, and taijutsu training, and a handful of tactics related to seals, and tags, and wires. It had its place, but Kakashi avoided more book related learning, and while Naruto could have used all the extra chakra control training he could get. Kakashi preferred to avoid it most times, at least since he knew it was being covered at different parts of the week by other people.

It wasn't that difficult to track Kakashi down, there were after all so many training grounds that Kakashi could have been using. The man had habits, and he tended to favor the same grounds his sensei had used in training the genin team Kakashi had been a part of years, and years ago. The only time Kakashi didn't use those training grounds was when he needed something different. Jiraya would have been able to figure this out, so it made sense when Jiraya did show up in all his colored smoke. The thing was Naruto, and Kakashi were not alone.

Naruto ANBU 'visitors' had left a few days after they'd shown up at the blonde's apartment, but there was another ANBU present. It took Orochimaru to realize it was Uchiha Itachi... he'd have to have words with sensei about that. He didn't particularly like the idea of risking his student, and heir, getting caught in the crossfire of a Kumo attack before the blonde was ready.

Jiraya on the other hand wasn't that concerned, and walked straight up to Kakashi and Naruto, who had stopped practicing at the Sannins' arrival.

-scene break-

Sarutobi was seated behind his massive wooden desk. The Shodaime's desk, as the first hokage had been the one to make it. The Senju in their time had been famed craftsman even after the foundation of the village.

The Sandaime was surounded by a multitude of leaf officials, and various other ninjas here to present their expertise on the issues at hand.

Tsunade wanted to punch the old man. She hadn't wanted to come back, this village had too many bad memories, and now they were on the verge of a war with Cloud. Another war, just like...

She had ignored the greetings from the various gathered ninja, at least until Koharu was waved off by they very tired looking Sandaime. "I would have liked this to have been held under better circumstances Tsunande, but the world is like it is." He stated, "Our situation with hidden cloud, and indeed the land of lightning is precarious as it is. It was necessary to recall you." Sarutobi Hiruzen had given his students as much leeway as possible, he had long feared that all his students would go astray, but now he was only concerned about one.

"Tch, well I'm back," Tsunande had considered throwing a fit, it wasn't fair, but then even half sloshed coming back into the village she came to her senses. The Sannin might have been legends, but Konoha was on the brink of war, and was nothing that Sarutobi wouldn't do to protect the village. Then there was also the fact that Jiraya was coming back and well Orochimaru had never really left. That was the ironic thing, Orochimaru of the three of them was the last she figured would have stayed home. That kind of drama didn't matter much today.

Sarutobi nodded, "So you are, welcome home," He added, "Beyond formalities though the situation with the Hidden Cloud is unfortunate." With the way things were playing out, or looked like they were going to there was no way to avoid bringing Tsunande back to the village.

It was true that the Shinobi Wars of the last half century had weakened the central governments of the land. That kind of fact couldn't be denied, but ninja villages still in theory were subordinate to the capital governments run typically by the strongest Feudal lords... of course that tended to be subject to change every few decades... or sooner as was needed.

This situation though had all the hallmarks of Ikazuchi and Hi both taking advantage of an opportunity presented and using it to further their own agendas. It was the kind of thing that took a bad situation and tended to make it even worse, but it was the situation that they were going to have to deal with. The reality was that both governments wanted to expand their own influence.

In this there was a small deal of comfort to be taken. Not a lot of comfort, but it was certainly true that things could have been worth. The land of lightning had always been exceedingly militant, even before the rise of the shinobi village system. At its height its aggressive expansionism had put it into competition with both Fire, and Water. Of course there was the fortunate bit, that shining glimer of good news. The land of water was in no position to in any way realistically join this coming conflict. Indeed if all the nasty rumors were any where close to accurate Water was due for a continued cycle of internal sectarian violent. That would keep them from attacking during the war.

It of course didn't deal with the more pressingly reality that Kumo was, like its host nation, exceedingly governed by warhawks. Kumo might have been weaker, from the perspective of member ninjas, but they would be better prepared for the conflict. It meant that for the moment that the advantage was Kumo. It also meant that it was in Kumo's interest to press their advantage and try and keep Konoha off balance.

So when Danzo had come to tell Sarutobi that he might not have been entirely truthful about disbanding Root... like he'd been ordered to some years earlier the Hokage hadn't blasted his childhood friend out of the tower. Danzo's root was now exceedingly useful especially given the situation. His first concern however, "Our first concern," Sarutobi said finally putting an end the numerous brushfire chats by the others who were just sitting around, "is the well being, and preparedness of our ninja. Tsunande in the interest of this we must insure the health, both physical and mental of the shinobi of the hidden leaf. This must begin with those most likely to be involved in fighting against the enemy, it is to that end I am placing this responsiblility in your hands."

There was some chattering to this announcement. No doubt there had been those who had assumed that all three Sannin back in Konoha, an auspicious event to be sure, that Sarutobi's first move would be an all consuming assault with the full force of Konoha's legendary ninja. This was a substantially more peaceful use. Tsunande's true greatness was not on the battlefield though, but as a medical expert, both in the operating room, and in organizing other physicians.

"What of the matter of our clans," One of the old men asked, "The Hyuga, and Uchiha were both struck out at, attacks made against their heirs," The Hyuga, and Uchiha who were widely regarded as the most powerful of Konoha's bloodline clans, "Something proactive must be done.

The Sandaime nodded, "The Uchiha make up the bulk of the Military Police force are already engaged in increasing," The not unsubstantial, "existing counter espionage network in the village this much is true. Yes this ties up many of the active, and reserve ninjas of the Uchiha clan, but even if it didn't now is not the time to strike." Slowly the old man laid out the battleplan that Leaf hoped would lead them to victory.

-scene break-

It'd been two months, since the end of last semester, and Naruto could surprisingly with honesty say he was kind of glad the academy was back in session. The war with Cloud was a mess, or was supposed to be a mess in truth not a whole lot of the Hidden Leaf could see the effect. Not yet anyway. Sure the Sannin were all back in the village, and it was true the Police were a bit more jumpy, but for now it was really just Ikazuchi and Hi no kuni who were fighting at least openly. The truth was there was a large border, and countries who were in between Lightning and Fire.

It was what was keeping the war from exploding really, a real war meant rushing over the border and through another country. For now both countries were busy trying to pressure the small countries on the border to choose sides, and for now the small countries were stalling, but there was no way that would hold.

Naruto flicked another pebble across the pond, the pond he was standing on so freaking early in the morning. Supposedly this was supposed to teach him something about active and passive control of chakra manipulation or something. In all honesty Kabuto used way to technical definitions for explaining practice... oh sorry that was Doctor Kabuto now.

There was a reason that Kabuto didn't have as much time nowadays either. Since he'd made doctor, and formally joined up with the medical nin corp he'd been real busy. Of course joining up also meant he was would pretty much assure him a quick promotion path up to Tokibetsu Jonin over the next eighteen months. On the down side with a war heating up Kabuto might get thrown into the middle of it.

Still Naruto understood it was pointless to complain for any of the reasons about that little reality. He also knew complaining about this yet another chakra control excercise was also not going to get him anywhere. So here he was going to be for the next thrity freaking minutes until he left to head to the academy. A part of him figured that Kabuto had sceduled this just so he'd have to rush to get to the academy on time. It made sense training wise for speed, and endurance stuff... it still didn't make it any less of a pain in the ass. It was really easy to screw up and end up being late to class.

This was just one aspect of his training. Kakashi had really had a big row with Kabuto about taijutsu. Naruto realized the two of them had been teaching him two completely different styles, but he hadn't really cared especially since Orochimaru had said know everything that you can because knowledge was power. Of course that had been something the Snake sannin had learned from Old Man Hokage so it definitely had to be true, because that was just the way the world worked... obviously.

Training after this whole business with Cloud though had gotten complicated. It hadn't helped that Orochimaru had said the news coming out of Mist... or rather the land of water really was pretty bad as well. Despite Jiraya joining in, which really didn't change much at all considering neither he or Orochimaru were around all that often considering they had ninja stuff they had to be doing, he was still mainly learning from Kabuto, and Kakashi. Sure some of the other did join in, and the Old Man's earth style shuriken thing was super awesome but it was mostly those two.

Kakashi was primarily a ninjutsu type shinobi with a strong secondary focus on taijutsu, which was especially ironic. It was ironic because Kabuto technically was the same classification. This was excepting of course that Kabuto's ninja specialization in ninjutsu was medicine. That was actually the thing their teaching focuses were on two totally directions. It was actually the cause of a lot of arguments... and if Naruto had to listen to Kabuto go on about Kakashi's eye surgery or whatever one more time Kabuto was so going to wake up with pink hair again. Naruto liked, and was interested in science, but really there were limits to liking something, and Kabuto took surgery a little far.

Another twenty or so minutes and the alarm finally chimed, which was good because Naruto was starting to run low on pebbles to toss. Running across the surface to the pond was the easy thing, which was why he wasn't running, he was walking. Kabuto had some nonsensical idea about making him jog in place while he tossed pebbles while standing on the pond... that was not going to be fun at all. Naruto as soon as he reached the shore though, and grabbed his stuff was off like a rocket up a tree and started hopping across branches. He really didn't want to be late again, Iruka-sensei was gonna yell at him, and that was always bad.

The village was pretty crowded of course, Konoha was always pretty crowded, but now it was more so the Konoha Military Police even had a larger prescence. The Hokage had ordered an expansion and naturally the first thing the Uchiha had done was to convince some of their own to reenter the service. So there were a couple of new faces amongst the police force as Naruto ran along. Man Kabuto had complained a whole lot about having to patch that Itachi kid up after Kakashi and him, Itachi, had gotten done sparring that one time it'd been ridiculous. Of course it was that kind of thing that kept him on good terms with the Police, Itachi putting in a good word helped at least.

Of course that was the thing this group of cops was rumor mongering, and rumors were a great source of information, especially if it was about a stranger in the village. Well a stranger that had caught their attention. He'd have stayed and listened longer but he was going to be late if he didn't book it to the academy.

-Chapter conclusion-


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Price of Power

-Chapter begin-

The last hope for a peaceful resolution fell through pretty quickly, which was a pity given that all the preparations for the summit had gone mostly without any proplems. It had been that they could have talked in some trade routes, or maybe even some agreed zones of influence or something but the Samurai were already riled up so that wasn't going to happen. It didn't help that the ninja were also getting fed up with everything as well, and that had only gotten worse after that botched assassination attempt.

That was the thing that had Sarutobi nervous. Lightning had claimed no knowledge of the attempt, and either they were lying, they were factionalized than they were letting on, or worse they were telling the truth.

If the assassination attempt hadn't been caught in time by one of the Inuzuka catching wind of the explosives it would have been messy. The unfortunate thing was that it was very likely that the leadership of Kumo had probably not had anything to do with it which meant another party's involvement. As it was had the bomb gone off there would have been a good chance of taking at least one, maybe both the daimyos out, and mabye even one or both of the kages out as well.

The real question was who. If Mist hadn't been in such bad shape Sarutobi might have suspected them as the outside actor, but that wasn't likely, not in the condition the land of water was in at present. It was more likely that this might have been an action by the fifth of the Great Hidden Villages. The land of earth's own Iwagakure no Sato. While it was true there was no love lost between Konoha, and Iwa, indeed there existed great enmity between the two villages. As true as that may have been Iwa had no interest to harm Konoha if it would just allow Kumo to ascend to take their place. Kumo who was significantly more militant than Konoha, and who had already openly committed things that lead to war.

All of this had become an even further problem after the attack two days ago. It had become clear there was yet another actor, or at least that there had been a fourth. Sarutobi rubbed the phantom pains in his shoulder. Tsunande had already patched him up as best he could. The abrupt attack on the Uchiha had been completely unexpected. It hadn't made any sense at all, and that had made it all the more devestating.

That it had been one of their own that had conducted it had further caught them by surprise. In a way that they'd been able to positively identify the one eyed Uchiha was even worse news. Sarutobi had had little choice but to immediately classify the information, otherwise well it would have been bad for morale.

"Kumo will attack now," Orochimaru was say, there was a long burned gash running from the side of his face along his shoulder down his side from the fight. The injury was just one minor one compared to the dearth of damage done during the fight.

It didn't matter how powerful that one Uchiha had been. It might have possible for the Uchiha to repel the attack if they hadn't been caught by surprise, certainly young Itachi had managed to at least hold his ground for a little while. In the end though the long Uchiha had found himself facing two of the sannin, and Sarutobi alongside other ninja, and then Kakashi had joined the fray.

That'd been the end of it pretty much. Even if Kakashi hadn't shown up Orochimaru and Jiraya alone would have been probably enough to tip the tide of battle. So that had been that cleaning up afterwards though, that had been the problem.

Jiraya nodded, "I've got to agree, to good of an opportunity. The Uchiha are still pulling bodies out of the rubble," and it'd been pretty much two damn days of work, "We're not even sure if Fugaku is going to make it," and he had Tsunande working on him, so that really wasn't a good sign. At least Itachi had been able to save his mother, and younger brother from the fighting with little more than scratches to both.

"I've been told," Sarutobi remarked looking through the paperwork that was occupying his desk. If anything though there was some good to come out of this, but he wasn't going to bring it up, not now. "what can we do specifically to prepare,"

Orochimaru glared at Danzo, "The Uchiha need an outlet, the Hyuga also want the chance to take out some frustration on Cloud. It might be time to let them," He commented, it wasn't likely going to be popular with the old man, but there weren't a whole lot of options. "Kumo's going to attack, but to do so means coming south, so we need to ambush them." That was a lot of ground to cover so finding a team of cloud ninja was going to be difficult.

"Tch, well I can definitely keep my ear to the ground," Jiraya grunted, "but there is some chatter about a cloud forward base already being established."  
The snake sannin glanced at the toad, "Then we find it and destroy it, and then let the Hyuga and Uchiha finish off the survivors."  
"Out of the question," Sarutobi interjected, for the moment it was better for one of them to remain in the village, in the wake of the attack on the Uchiha it was paramount to reinforce the village's defenses. It would take time for the Uchiha to prepare, and this kind of offensive couldn't be mounted without solid intel. "we will find another way but for the moment I need at least one of you to remain in the village."

The toad sage looked gobsmacked for a minute, "Look sensei I understand, but Tsunande is here we can totally go out launch the attack, hit that base and-,"

"What if we reinforce one of us with other Jonin," Orochimaru added.

Jiraya nodded, "Yeah give me Kakashi, and let me bring that Itachi kid, his funky Sharingan would be real useful, them and a couple other ninja we could make up." The sandaime considered yes if they gave Kakashi and Itachi enough time to recover and sent them with support it could be very useful.

-scene break-

The blonde's eyes cracked open. It took him a minute to get out of bed. Orochimaru had left him a bunch of notes and stuff to read about some of his findings about Kekai Genkai, and stuff. It would be the first time Naruto had studied some about the subject, but it really was a wide topic. Centuries of evolution had caused potentially useful genes to be locked away, or that was what Orochimaru had said.

Orochimaru for example had grown fangs, and poison glands after fiddling with his genetic code, as well as others modifications, that were slightly more creepy to any one with normal sensibilities, the down side was he didn't like the cold.

It was interesting stuff, but at the same time, not what he wanted to be reading at five thirty in the morning straight after getting out of bed. Orochimaru was still in the village of course but he was busy helping the ANBU with village security. That thing with the Uchiha was pretty bad, and had hit a whole lot of people. The academy had lost a number of students who had had the unfortunate luck to get caught in the crossfire.

From his sleeves appeared a few kunai, people knew better than to enter his appartment univited for doing so was to invite being turned into a corpse. Especially these days with the ANBU crawling over the place like wasps over a nest. Still it didn't hurt to be prepared especially given what had had happened a couple days ago.

The young grey haired ninja entered smiling cheerfully. "Hello Naruto-kun." He announced pleasantly padding into the small appartment that was Naruto's. Kabuto had way to much energy for someone who had just pulled another all nighter at the hospital, but then again it was Kabuto.

If it wasn't for the medic nin's enhanced regeneration he would have been sure that all that caffeine that Kabuto drank would have killed him. Kabuto was still merrily humming to himself, "So Orochimaru's busy looking at Yamato, and his mokuton abilities, the village council thinks it would be great to have Mokuton as a bloodline." There was apparently a 'Hyoton' or Ice style bloodline, or had been in water country once upon a time, and Konoha was very interested in bloodlines after all. "of course Tsunande is pretty adamant about telling them to back off, so he's pretty much doing it behind her back." He remarked helping himself to Naruto's fridge. "But enough about that we'll be practicing the chakra scalpel again today when you get out," He was going to grab a bite to eat and crash until Naruto got done with the academy for the day. As it was most of Naruto's other teachers were gone off on missions or other wise busy, which meant he had a whole week to drill his style of taijutsu into Naruto without Kakashi's meddling to get in the way. It was going to be great.

Naruto nodded. It was ninjutsu so he was definitely keen on it, and supposedly it would help with learning that wind jutsu that Kakashi had 'accidentally' left out before he'd left to head up north on that mission with Jiraya. Right accidentally sure that was the story they were going with. The sandaime didn't need to know... just yet.

The blonde looked out his window. Konohagakure was surrounded by a large wall and around that were forests, well to be frank there were plenty of woods inside the walls as well. The so called middle districts of the village, was as it might imply in the area between the rich, and traditional innermost districts within which were the expensive houses, and clan estates, as well as the other buildings belonging to service the upper class, while the lower district mainly comprised the regions around the walls within which the terrain varied form slums to fairly decent normal middle income housing. The middle districts contained the majority of the commerical shopping regions, as well as more middle class buildings, plus a few concealed buildings.

Overall the middle district pretty much was the shopping district and as the day was just getting started it was beginning to get busy. Konoha's planning had been fairly well organized, but even so it looked weird just because of the mishmash in styles. Still Naruto knew he needed to head out ot the academy soon or he'd be late... again. Life went on.

"So what are you studying?"

Naruto perked up, it was one of the ANBU, and looked at the calendar, there were times when he forgot what day it was. "uh its what," Oh damn, "yeah freaking taijutsu this morning geez," That damn weapons, hand to hand and endurance course thing they wanted them to do. When he'd first heard about it, it had sounded cool, and then they tried it the first time and it had sucked. He really didn't want to do it. The instructor's put so many freaking rules on the fighting it was like freaking being in an opera. They'd spazzed out when he'd made clones of his throwing knives on the weapons portion, and it'd been such a pain in the ass.

He had spent two whole days practicing that technique, and they weren't even going to let him use it on the weapons portion of the course. It was stupid. Of course it was supposed to make it fair for academy students who didn't have access to such techniques, as well as teach those who did not to depend overly on them. In other words it was about restraint, which was something that Naruto didn't particularly do well. Seriously being able to triple the number of knives you threw with solid weapons was awesome, it made dodging so much harder.

He should know Kabuto did it with pebbles, and getting hit freaking hurt.

-scene break-

Naruto tossed his bag. The Akamichi kid had just finished course, and Mizuki-sensei was patching him up. Chouji had managed to get smacked in the face by one of the branches, but it was just a minor bunch of scratches. Still Mizuki was good at dealing with injuries and such for someone who wasn't a medic nin.

Mizuki had tried to get into the program, but he didn't have the references so he'd settled for a teaching job. He planned on reaplying in a few years after some more practice on his limitted techniques. Now that Tsunande was back in Konoha his interest in getting had doubled.

"You're up Naruto," Iruka called, "and please don't deforest the training area again," He added, Naruto was hardly the first person to do that. Every couple of semesters it happened. Ussually it was an Uchiha deciding to use one of their Katon jutsus to clear the way, but there were others

Man no fun at all, he thought rolling a flat throwing knife in between his fingers he surveyed the area from his perch in the branches of the tree as he got ready to start the course. He just had to get through this relay portion, navigate around the traps, and get to the end. Hitting the targets was easy to, even if it would have been so much more fun to hit them with ninjutsu.

Still noot a problem. He went through it... well it certainly helped he could run up trees with just chakra... Kabuto's lessons in chakra control really were useful. Not that he was going to tell Kabuto that, that was the last thing Kabuto needed to here first thing after waking up from a nap.

Naruto hit the last target chiming the bell, sure he'd dwaddled a bit on that last part of the course, but it didn't matter. This thing was boring, and there really wasn't a point to going all out, at least the taijutsu portion would be somewhat more fun. After the incident with Kumo at the end of last semester a lot of the clan kids had started getting extra tutoring. It had mainly been a feel good measure, but some of them were actually pretty good, and taken it serious. The only downside was jyuken fucking hurt, which was why Naruto did his absolute best to stay away from the Hyuga kids in class. Sure he could reopen his tenketsu when they hit them, the kid's at least Naruto hadn't actually tried with an adult Hyuga, it didn't make it any less unpleasant though.

Sasuke, because he was a fucking Uchiha... or something made the run at his absolute fastest possible speed. Still he had to admit the kid was accurate with shuriken and kunai to be sure. He didn't see the point of rushing like that but whatever it Sasuke wanted to blow through the course that was his business.

The attached Taijutsu building was a lot more modern. It had gotten about two years ago as part of the academy expansion, it was really modern. It had really good air conditioning, and lots of mats, and padding on the walls. Of course it was also intended only for hand to hand... which meant no weapons. Naruto understood... most the kids who came from civilian families... sucked at actual weapons use in his class. Sure some of them could accurate throw kunai, and shuriken but geez Orochimaru had outright started laughing when he'd been watching it'd been embarressing.

Umino Iruka, and his buddy Mizuki grabbed the rest of the stuff, mainly the bags with lunches for the students in them, and ushered everyone in. The new building was great it'd been really good that the Sandaime had approved it. "I would like to remind everyone that there is to be no ninjutsu or weapon usage in here." Mizuki announced, "Please reframe from that."

"Mizuki is right this is a really nice building we've got, and we don't want it getting torn up because of people not following the rules." Iruka agreed, setting the insulated bag of lunches he was carrying down. "now I know a lot of you are looking forward to this but remember this is just a sparring session, and you don't need to be unneccesarily rough, and remember no punches or kicks to the face. Body blows only." He called.

There were a number of groans from the collected students.

The other chunin dug out the roster, "All right I'm going to start pairing you all up, and uh just don't start until you're ready okay? I know some of you are tired from the last part of the course, so just take this time to catch your breath."

"Man I'm totally ready to go, let me at whoever I've got to fight!" The Inuzuka declared loudly, "I can totally wipe the floor with them," Strictly speaking he might have been boasting, but Kiba had spent the whole break drilling on taijutsu, and he was one of the better taijutsu users in the class.

Sasuke, and some of the others, Naruto amongst them, didn't take well to having their skills called into question. Yes, Kiba might have been skilled, was, but most of them had practiced tirelessly on the disciplines of being shinobi.

Iruka sighed, man they were going to have to watch them, this rivalry between the students was going to get out of hand again. It was going to be almost as bad as when Sasuke had demonstrated that fireball jutsu to the class. He couldn't blame the kid though it was certainly something to show off after break. Being able to make a fireball that was definitely something to be proud of at his age.

-scene break-

Jiraya looked around. He certainly would have preferred having Orochimaru with him on this, but sensei had a point having one of them in the village was necessary if Cloud did try something. He'd just have to make do with a bunch of elite jonin, it wouldn't be a big deal. Still he wasn't sure whether it was such a good idea having brought Kakashi and Itachi along, but on the other hand two additional elite ANBU was better than not having them come along.

He had really hoped this mess with Kumo could have just quietly died down, because as it was the rumors coming out of mist were looking pretty bad. Still one problem needed to be taken care of at a time. It took him a couple minutes to realize that someone had managed to slip a genjutsu on the only reason he had known it was because he had turned back around to find Itachi was a small black red eyed cat... well a small black cat with the sharingan.

The fact was none of Team Sarutobi, aka the Sannin, had been particularly big on illusionary genjutsu... or well really any kind of genjutsu. Sure they all had various little tricks, but none of them had really had it as their specialization. All of team sarutobi could be considered Ninjutsu specialists with a secondary focus in Taijutsu that was just the way it happened to, but even so there were very few people in the world that Jiraya knew who could manage to lay a genjutsu on him. The ones he knew about that were not from Konoha could be counted on his hands, with fingers left over. On the plus side even if this person couldn't be depended upon to help against Konoha it wasn't likely that they were in danger either. It was also pretty openly clear that Jiraya was getting an invitation to go talk, the question however would be finding them.

Itachi watch Jiraya wander off, even with his Sharingan active he hadn't found the source of this surreal genjutsu. He waved a paw... err hand at Kakashi. It seemed neither had the cyclops ninja either. Even Kakashi's dog's seemed to be affected seeing as one of them was trying to sniff at the illusionary cat forms of the ninja, even as a few attempted to dispell it.

The reality of the situation was concerning though, for a genjutsu to be so powerful indicated a profound mastery of the subject, and of course raw power. There was no attempt to hide the wonkiness of this illusion, but then that could simply be a diversion to prevent them from noticing some smaller more crucial detail. Whatever they were up against whoever they faced, the Sharingan was not undoing it, and that left few options indeed as to what could be responsible.

Kakashi was thinking it too, "Another sharingan?" He asked, it was easily the most logical answer or at least the quickest to come to. It still of course had problems to explain just how all of this could be going on. Yes the Uchiha were a large clan, and had this been forty years earlier it would have made sense to run into Uchiha scattered across the countryside, but the Shinobi wars had depopulated or forced all remaining Uchiha enclaves to consolidate within Konoha or face destruction from one force or another.

"It could be," Itachi coneded, it could, but no one really wanted it to be a sharingan. An Uchiha had wreaked havoc on Konoha not two weeks past, and he'd been by himself, and it had still taken the sannin and Hokage intervening to put Uchiha Obito down for good.

It had been that for Kakashi that had been hard.

No one asked what transpired when Jiraya returned. He came out of the woods almost an hour later smelling of incense, and tea leaves. Possibly he'd met up with the genjutsu caster at the local road side tavern, but Jiraya had told them to drop it. He'd been rather clear that there only focus should be making safely home to Konoha once the Cloud Ninjas in the area were dealt with.

Even when he was pressed on the issue Jiraya was not forthcoming on just who had caught them all in that ridiculous field of flowers. Still no attacks came from an insane sharignan user so that was at least a good sign, but everyone noticed Jiraya did send one of his toads back to Konoha post haste with a message; presumably for the Hokage.

The next day was rainy, but still clear and bright. The rain would still be enough to erode any trail left by whoever had surprised them though. "Pakkun doesn't know what to make of the scent," Kakashi was saying as they kept walking along the road. Sure taking the main road had its dangers but this risk was outweighed by other benefits.

"What does it mean?"

The one eyed ninja shrugged, "Can't say," It certainly wasn't nothing, even Jiraya had given up trying to convince them that it was, maybe they'd find something out, but at this point Kakashi wasn't holding his breath. "At this rate the Hokage is more likely going to be the one to know who or what we stumbled across."

More than a kilometer away a pair of red eyes watched, the tomoe in them were very much still. The Uchiha man stood on the side of the mountain and watched the Konoha himself had no hita-ate, or other indicator of village allegiance.

Not that that had stopped those young fools from Cloud's ANBU from attacking him. Of course even without a hita-ate he was too noticeably a ninja. Experienced ninja could were able to sense chakra. The effective radius of course was tiny when someone wasn't throwing off enough chakra to blow a mountain in half, but...

In short it couldn't have been helped. They hadn't been that stupid, so stupid to miss the fact he was a ninja. Talking them out of violence hadn't worked either, and after the first one fell... well then his comrades really hadn't been inclined to listen. Still two of the Konoha ninja had Sharingan, both with the Mangekyo he could sense it within them both... that was interesting.

-Chapter conclusion-


End file.
